The bedrock of the All Blacks regeneration stemmed from Jason Ryan’s rapid transformation of their dented forward pack. Hence why the nature of the humbling defeat to the Springboks at Twickenham sparked such alarm. On the eve of their World Cupopener, the onus now falls on the depleted All Blacks pack to reassert their dominant platform.
Through an 11-test unbeaten run, Ryan rebuilt the All Blacks forwards from a shadow of their former selves. It wasn’t always the perfect platform by any stretch. They never had it all their own way. But by the first three tests of this year, the All Blacks vastly improved to collectively steamroll the Pumas, Wallabies and Springboks to hand their backline threats a dream ride.
At that point, the All Blacks’ big men appeared primed to rumble with the world’s best on the pinnacle stage.
Enter the Springboks at Twickenham. How much the lack of dominance, the set piece issues that reared their head that fateful evening can be attributed to losing Scott Barrett for 42 minutes remains to be seen. Rest assured, though, Ryan is hellbent on confronting those problems head-on.
The French pack at a heaving Stade de France on a frenzied World Cup opening night presents many of the same challenges the Springboks imposed on the All Blacks.
Neither pack will be at full strength this weekend. The All Blacks are without starting tighthead Tyrel Lomax, centurion Brodie Retallick and increasingly influential blindside Shannon Frizell, one of the dominant forces this season.
While Barrett was cleared to play the opening match, covering those absences forces the All Blacks to remodel their starting eight with Nepo Laulala or Fletcher Newell to anchor the scrum and Chiefs loose forward Luke Jacobson potentially tasked with replacing Frizell.
“It definitely reshapes it a little bit. It is a little bit different,” Ryan noted of the injuries as the All Blacks trained in blazing sun at their Lyon base before transferring to Paris mid-week. “But if we adapt and get our preparation right, whether who is starting or finishing, we’ve got to set them up so they can do that.
“If you haven’t got a pretty special tighthead prop your scrum is going to struggle. You see that with France and how they scrummage. There’s nothing better than the scrum battle. The importance of the tighthead is massive. There’s a lot of power that comes through their shoulders. We’ll have to set that up right, but we’ve got absolute faith in whoever locks that down for us this week and whoever comes off the bench.”
Sam Cane speaks to his side during the Twickenham defeat to South Africa. Photo / Getty
France have lost leading loosehead prop Cyril Baille and giant lock Paul Willemse for the entire World Cup to injury - yet Ryan knows what’s coming. “They’re a big pack. They’ve got big ball carriers all around their whole eight and off the bench. They’ve got good, genuine lineout options. They’re really athletic. They use their formations really well so we’ve got to be at our best.”
The All Blacks often preach the art of learning and evolving. After their scrum struggled, the lineout battled interpretation difficulties and they conceded three maul tries against the Boks while one man down, Jacobson outlined the focus of their pre-World Cup camp in Germany before arriving in France.
“We got into a bit of work but a lot of it was around our technical game and the detail around some of our movements,” Jacobson said. “Jase was really trying to coach us rather than train us and upskill us in what we’re doing in around our maul, our defence, scrummaging, all things that forwards do.
“You don’t usually get the chance to go over that sort of thing when you’ve got a game at the end of the week. You’re more pressed for time and you have to nail off the most important rocks. Last week we didn’t have a game so they got to touch on some things we wouldn’t usually get time for.
“We got a good hit there. This week will be more about making sure the fitness levels are there for Friday.”
Discipline is, of course, another major touchpoint after the All Blacks copped three yellow cards against the Springboks.
While he accepts the firm stance around head contact, Ryan hopes World Cup officials adopt a commonsense approach to cards that ensures contests are not constantly overshadowed by a series of sendoffs elsewhere.
The easiest way to avoid pressure escalating cards is for the All Blacks forward pack to regain their front foot platform.
“Rugby is such a competitive game. There’s going to be small margins for when collisions go wrong but as long as it’s not the Fifa World Cup. This is the Rugby World Cup and it’s a spectacle the game needs,” Ryan said.
“We have to adapt and get our height right around the collisions and make sure our carry and clean are really strong. We must have a dominant mindset but be clean where we can so we don’t give any easy outs. That will be the same for both teams.”
